Garmin CIRQA Smart Band – All the Bugs So Far

CIRQA Smart Band was launched less than two weeks ago and appears to have exceeded Garmin’s expectations by selling out the initial production run. As a result, many of us have one on our wrists, so the community has already done a good amount of testing. There are quite a few bugs listed below, but overall this isn’t too bad for a new Garmin launch, especially if they fix them rapidly.

Here’s a working list of CIRQA bugs reported so far, grouped by area. Status shows whether a bug is widely reported or single-source. Feel free to post yours in the comments or suggest fixes if appropriate.

Update, 20 August 2026: Garmin has pushed firmware 2.50, with a changelog that only says “improvements to OHR.” Garmin gives no further detail, but the optical-sensor-stops-after-charging bug below looks the more likely target than the interval accuracy lag found in this site’s testing. See the full firmware breakdown for the reasoning. The rollout is at 20% of units, so it hasn’t reached everyone yet, and there’s no user confirmation so far that it’s actually fixed anything.

Update, 3 September 2026: Garmin has pushed firmware 3.20, a much larger update than 2.50 with eighteen listed changes. Four bugs below are now confirmed fixed and have been moved to the “Fixed since launch” section: the alarm snooze vibration confusion, bedtime notification timing, treadmill distance drift, and the inability to edit reps and weights after a strength workout.

Sync and data tracking

• Optical sensor stops after charging. The sensor does not resume after a charge until the band is powered off in the Garmin Connect app and back on via the button, with no warning shown even though the band reports as connected and synced. Source: r/Garmin (three users). This is widely reported.
• No data is recorded beyond sleep or manual activities despite correct primary-device setup. Steps, heart rate, Body Battery and Training Readiness stop updating even with CIRQA correctly set as primary wearable and primary training device. One user’s Garmin support case ran a full week without resolution, while another user with the same setup reported no issues over a 19-hour wear test. Sources: Garmin Forums (step counter thread) and r/Cirqa. This is widely reported, but how bad it gets seems to vary between units.
• CIRQA step count overrides an explicitly set primary watch. Garmin Connect displays CIRQA’s step count rather than a Fenix 8‘s, even though the Fenix is confirmed in Connect’s own settings as both primary wearable and primary training device. Source: r/Cirqa. This is a single-source report.
• My own personal experience. I’ve lost 3 important workouts that should have been recorded as I pressed the button but weren’t, and neither were they autodetected. A friend has had the same issue with one strength workout. Possibly related to recording the same workout simultaneously with a HRM600 or FR970.
• Auto-detection can fail to record an activity at all when a Garmin watch is worn at the same time. In the5krunner’s own testing, CIRQA completely failed to auto-detect a 60-minute bike ride on 2 August, though it recorded a yoga session correctly the same day. The pattern that held up afterward: auto-detection didn’t fire when a Garmin watch was also being worn, even with CIRQA set as the primary device, which Garmin may intend as expected behaviour rather than a bug. Source: the5krunner’s own testing.
• Floors climbed doesn’t register. One user reports zero floors climbed logged after several days of wear. Source: r/Cirqa. This is a single-source report.

Alarms and vibration

• Smart alarm resets its own repeat schedule. An alarm set for weekdays reportedly fires on a day it wasn’t scheduled for, then reverts from “weekdays” to a one-off setting after triggering. Source: Garmin Forums, multiple posters. This is widely reported.
• Smart alarm fires at the end of the window rather than during detected light sleep. Two users report the alarm consistently waiting until the final minute of a set range, in one case despite the band’s own data showing light sleep well before that point. Source: r/Cirqa, two independent posts.

Body Battery, Training Readiness and HRV

• Body Battery fails to reflect exertion when CIRQA isn’t worn during the activity. A user who left CIRQA off the wrist during a five-hour ride saw no Body Battery decrease afterward, unlike a previous Garmin watch used the same way. Source: Garmin Forums. This is a single-source report.
• Body Battery climbs unusually during ordinary sedentary activity. One user reported Body Battery increasing while working at a desk, a pattern they said none of their Garmin watches had shown; a second user on the same thread reported normal behaviour. Source: r/Garmin. This is a single-source report, and it’s contradicted by another user on the same thread.
• Training Readiness is delayed roughly an hour after an activity syncs. Reported when using an Edge 1050 or Epix alongside an HRM 600 strap. Source: r/Garmin. This is a single-source report.
• HRV Status and Training Readiness reset when switching between CIRQA and a watch. Two users on different watches (Forerunner 970, Fenix 7X Pro) report losing HRV Status, in one case along with Training Readiness, after switching to CIRQA. A third report describes the same trigger costing skin temperature data after switching from a Fenix 8 Pro. One reply puts this down to CIRQA’s older Elevate Gen 4 sensor differing from the watch’s Gen 5. Sources: r/Cirqa and two further r/Cirqa posts. This has been reported three times.

Workout data

• Average heart rate and calories change after saving a workout. One user’s auto-detected workout showed an average heart rate of 127bpm before saving and 107bpm after, which would change every recovery metric that depends on it. Source: r/Cirqa. This is a single-source report.
• Daily max heart rate and workout max heart rate don’t align. Reported by the same user in the same post as above. Source: r/Cirqa. This is a single-source report.

Other reported issues

• Broadcast HR drains the battery far faster than advertised. One user reports battery life dropping to around 1.5 days with Broadcast HR left on permanently, alongside their paired watch not reliably showing live heart rate outside of an active workout screen. By comparison, they got close to two weeks from an Amazfit Helio Strap doing the same job. Source: r/Cirqa. This is a single-source report.
• Strava doesn’t display CIRQA as the recording device. Activities sync correctly, but unlike a watch or Edge computer, Strava doesn’t show which device recorded a CIRQA activity. Source: r/Cirqa. This is a single-source report.

Independently reported since launch (30-day test)

• Running distance without GPS can be badly miscalibrated. One long-term tester reported an outdoor run reading roughly a third short of the actual distance, with stride-length calibration not correcting itself over subsequent runs. Source: DC Rainmaker. This extends the treadmill-distance report above to outdoor running too.
• Heart rate broadcasting can drop out intermittently. A connection to a third-party app worked reliably for weeks, then began dropping shortly after starting, with no configuration change on either end. Source: DC Rainmaker.
• Pulse Ox may trigger outside of actual sleep. The “Sleep Hours” window is reported to enable Pulse Ox monitoring for that whole period regardless of whether the wearer is actually asleep, with the sensor said to occasionally activate while still awake within the window. Source: DC Rainmaker.
• Time-based workout alerts fire in the wrong mode. Alerts are meant to trigger only in manual activity mode, but were found to fire during automatic detection instead and stay silent during manual sessions, the reverse of the intended behaviour. Source: DC Rainmaker.
• Timezone changes can confuse Jet Lag Advisor. After travel, the feature continued treating the trip as a future event rather than one that had already happened. Garmin has acknowledged the cause and says a fix is coming. Source: DC Rainmaker.
• Occasional speed-graph glitches showing implausible values. A one-off case displayed a workout speed reading in the hundreds of thousands of km/h. Not reproduced since, low confidence. Source: DC Rainmaker.
• Auto-detected runs can skip GPS recording entirely. Possibly linked to a phone’s low-power mode; Garmin is understood to be looking into it. Source: DC Rainmaker.
• Garmin Connect can visually hang when starting an activity manually with weak signal. The app appears frozen but the recording starts correctly behind the scenes; force-closing and reopening the app resolves the display without losing data. Source: DC Rainmaker.

Fixed since launch (for reference)

• Live heart rate is hidden behind a Connect+ subscription during workouts. Garmin Connect showed only average heart rate rather than a live reading unless the user paid for Connect+. Garmin told DC Rainmaker it would update the app within days to make live heart rate free, and did so. Source: DC Rainmaker. This was widely reported and has since been fixed.
• Workouts failed to sync to Strava and other third-party platforms at launch. This was caused by a setting on Garmin’s side that hadn’t been turned on, and it was fixed within a day or two of launch. Source: DC Rainmaker hands-on.
• Auto-activity detection was slow or absent, and Training Readiness was volatile within a single session, at launch. Source: DC Rainmaker hands-on.
• Unexplained vibration during alarm snooze. A short press only snoozed the smart alarm rather than dismissing it, causing continued vibration users mistook for a fault. Fixed in firmware 3.20, which also adds a first-time prompt explaining the snooze/dismiss difference.
• Bedtime approaching notifications firing at the wrong time. Reported firing in the middle of the day rather than close to bedtime. Fixed in firmware 3.20.
• Treadmill distance drifting further off with repeated use. Firmware 3.20 adds treadmill recalibration whenever a distance of 1.5km / 1 mile or more is manually entered.
• Reps and weights couldn’t be edited after a strength workout. Firmware 3.20 allows rep counting edits in Garmin Connect Mobile.

Not a bug, but catching users out

• Pulse Ox is off by default. New users checking their first night’s sleep data find no SpO2 reading until they manually turn on Pulse Ox for sleep or all-day tracking in device settings. One user also needed a device reset before it started working. Source: r/Cirqa, multiple posters.

Unverified or single-report, low confidence

• Only strength training could be logged as an activity type. This was reported alongside app headings showing as underscores instead of proper text, which suggests some app text hasn’t been translated properly for this build. Source: r/GarminWatches, zero replies, no corroboration.

None of the bugs above affected heart rate, sleep, step or calorie accuracy in the5krunner’s own six-session testing. The full review covers those results in detail.

Garmin CIRQA Smart Band

Screenless health and fitness band (no subscription required)

£179.99

$199.99/€199.99

+other retailers

Last Updated on 3 September 2026 by the5krunner

the5krunner

tfk is the founder and author of the5krunner, an independent endurance sports technology publication. With 20 years of hands-on testing of GPS watches and wearables, and competing in triathlons at an international age-group level, tfk provides in-depth expert analysis of fitness technology for serious athletes and endurance sport competitors. ID